Swamp
by Amatera
Summary: As the underling of the mysterious bluehaired Akatsuki who likes to keep her name a secret, Sakura encounters the not so bright sides of amnesy. Sequel to Mud, Deidara X Sakura , DeiSaku.
1. Prologue

Rain was coming down heavy on the roof of the pharmacy, making sounds as if the world was coming to an end this moment. The streets were little, centimetre deep rivers, rushing downhill, only blocked by a pair of feet every now and then.

The temperature was still mild for winter, but Onee-san knew that a mild beginning meant a hard winter, and so she had already begun to store supplies in the cellar, not wanting to make any of her little family starve.

Family, that was word too big for the community that shared the house with her, permanently or from time to time.

Well, there was Sakura, who she had taken in as her underling. Deidara and Sasori came to visit every know and then, and she wondered if the two of them had too much time on their hands, with Deidara hanging over his sculptures and trying to learn how to play a piano, and Sasori doing Sasori-stuff.

When those two were here, at least on of them seemed to feel like he was visiting his mother after a long time.

But now Sakura and Onee-san were alone at home, trying to keep the building clean and neat after they had closed for this day.

"Something bad is going to happen. I feel it in my bones." The blue-haired woman sighed, swinging her broom at one of the last spiders for this year. "This weather is so depressing – and gives me so much insight into the future."

She listened to the sound of the fireplace. Sometimes she damned herself for taking the first free building she was able to get, not aware of the fact that it was also the oldest and least modern in the entire world.

"Aren't you seeing a little too much into it? It's just rain, and in some days, it might be snow." Sakura happily chirped across the room, obviously happy about the cold season for some reason.

"Oh dear, if you are still alive in twenty years, when you have seen the world and whatever, then we'll talk again, and you'll say that rain is a bad omen." Onee-san answered with a depressed voice.

"That's why you're still single, Onee-san." Sakura replied before strolling off into the small kitchen, leaving a slightly mad Onee-san behind her.

"One day, vengeance will be mine...for sure." She clenched her teeth, before she realized there was a knock on the door. "We don't buy anything!"

But when she opened the door, she sighed yet again. "...surely a bad omen."


	2. Intruders

"I think you seriously have to work less." Onee-san grumbled as she examined Itachi Uchiha's eyes.

After the dramatical way they showed up in the little pharmacy, Onee-san had scolded them not to make such a show, as they were working undercover and didn't want to get found out by common people.

Itachi didn't even twitch at the energic comments his blue haired senior made. He just listened to what the kunoichi, whose name noone seemed to know, said and answered with a dry, cold and almost scary "...right."

While Hoshigaki Kisame seemed like he couldn't get rid of his sharky grin, it didn't seem like he liked the way they had marched in, which seemed to be even to dramatic for his standarts, whatever his standarts were.

"Hell, are you poking your eyes with a fork or what?" Onee-san yelled, making Sakura twitch. "I wished you would stop using this thing instead of coming to me every blue moon and have this damaged fixed! You'll be as blind as a shark if you just miss the right point for healing only one time!"

She calmed down after Kisame roared at her remark about sharks and a embarressed cough from her student.

Sakura knew that Itachi Uchiha was using a bloodline which had something to do with his eyes and that it would add permanent damage to them sooner or later, but Onee-san refused to explain it any further and just added that Sakura would learn how to deal with those slimy red orbs soon enough, and that she would tell her what to do then.

She shrugged it off then, accepting it because Onee-san seemed to be annoyed by the topic, and if she was in a bad mood, she would go on a rampage in the pharmacy. It gave the kunoichi a vague deja-vue somehow, as if Onee-san was very much like someone important she had forgotten, but she knew that every time she tried to get her memory back, even with the help of her new teacher, it would end up with depressions and medication, nightmares and sore muscles in the morning, and sometimes she couldn't move fore days, couldn't eat properly and was forced to throw up even when she smelled food.

Onee-san had told her that something in her past was the cause for her physical rejection to get the memory back, and that only time could heal the damage.

Of course, Sakura often asked herself what could happen to a human being that would make remembering so painful and exhausting, but then again, she didn't care. Whatever her life was like before, she didn't remember, and she was perfectly satisfied now, as she was kept busy by Onee-san, and was amused by the way Deidara had turned utterly bashful towards her after she had joined Onee-san.

Even if she hadn't seen him for quite a while now.

"One day I'm going to rip them out of your head!" Onee-san screamed again, making Sakura and Kisame twitch at the same time while the sharkman was gnawing on a raw chickenleg.

She hadn't met Kisame often, but he somehow had a rough charme on him as long as you were allied with him. Well, even some of his allies didn't get along with him, and it may was to their occupation that Onee-san and Sakura were the only ones among the rows of Akatsuki that were more or less accepted by everyone.

Medical Ninjas are such rare finds and can be your cruelest enemy if you piss them off.

When Onee-san finally threw the troublesome part of the 'family' out, she seemed relieved that they were gone. "It's not like I don't like treating people, but if it wasn't an order from our leader, I rather wouldn't put up with his wicked eyes. It scares the shit out of me, damn." She smashed her fist against the wall and yawned right afterwards. "It's always so tiring, I bet you can't believe it. Be a good girl and get the 'Closed' sign out, so we can slack off a little – I hate this."

"Well, I can't know, since you don't tell me what exactly you're doing. Or what the damage with the eyes really is." Sakura shoved a curtain to the side and hung the large, green sign into the window. "Wouldn't you even tell me the symptoms?"

Onee-san sighed. "Right, stop digging already.." She yawned and strolled into the small sitting room in the back of the house. "Come 'ere, we'll talk in a nicer atmosphere."

Settling on the new sofa Onee-san had bought with the funds she was granted, and that were actually intended to secure that they have enough to eat and drink, the woman streched while Sakura was sitting down beside her.

"See, the bloodline the Uchiha have is known in many areas of the world and is called the Sharingan...usually they turn it on and off like a flashlight, but if you leave a flashlight on for too long, it will drain the battery...that's exactly the thing the Sharingan does to the eyes if used permanently. It's a powerful thing, but it also drains the eyes, they're under permanent stress...see, that's what this fool does. He's slowly going blind but doesn't turn his flashlights off. So they damage his eyes and I have to get him out of this scrape."

Sakura nodded. Onee-san's explainations were always wordy and a little weird, but somehow understandable.

But now the image of Itachi's eyes as flashlight, turning on and off was fastened in her mind and shook her with laughter, which wasn't dieing down even after minutes.

"I see, If you can laugh about this, then you understood." Onee-san streched out on the sofa, pushing Sakura to the foot end without noticing.

She already felt how sleep was coming over her while Sakura was strolling around again, carrying two bags of fruit around. She wondered why they even bought the damned second one,as it was full of bad, small coconuts, which were unexpectedly heave, expensive and not rich of milk anyway.

It was the same with the apples, pineapples, grapes and oranges. Onee-san didn't have the slightest clue about when or which fruit the tradesmen offered were juicy and rich, and when they were not.

But Sakura hadn't had much time to think about her teacher's way of doing shopping, as there were sounds in the sales room, and they also woke Onee-san up. Exchanging looks, they silently agreed that it was too stupid not to lock the front door. Stupid girls.

They agreed on waiting, if it was a lousy thief, he would come here too and be no match for the kunoichi, who were already waiting for the moment the fool would step inside.

For a moment, everything was silent, Sakura still held the coconut bag, Onee-san still sat straight on the sofa, ready to pounce up if there was danger.

When the door of the sitting room swung open forcefully, Sakura threw one of the small, heavy coconuts towards the attacker, accompanied by a shrill shriek.

Thud.

"Hum, nice toss." Sasori said dryly, as Deidara fell into a more or less serious coma in front of him, the coconut left another crack on the blonde's foreheadprotector.

"Oh my." Sakura said, a little concerned, but not far from being amused by the bizarre situation, and feeling guilty for being so nasty at the same time.

"Just left him there on the ground, it doesn't really matter." Sasori said, while making a wide step over the unconscious body of Deidara, who seemed to be in a dreamland, far far away already.

"I didn't plan to nurse someone who just comes into my house without knocking when a sign in the window says that we're not opened." Onee-san coughed, trying to hide the amusement about Sasori's dry remark about the good toss. "What's up? Why do you come here after such a long time?"

Sasori settled himself on a armchair in a corner, unlike his usualy ways of just standing around, because it didn't exhaust him.

"We were just checking on you. As we are still after this...fox-kid. We heard that many shinobi from Konohagakure are going around the countries, spying for something. As far as I guess, it's something the Hokage herself is concerned about, otherwise she wouldn't risk her precious shinobi on spying missions all across the countries. We wanted to warn you, as it could be that they will sooner or later cross this town to, so you must so your best not to pull too much attention on your shop." With a small glance towards Sakura, who was sorting the fruit in various boxes, he made a small pause. "You know why it's important."

Onee-san sighed. "I see. It changes everything."

She pulled out a little pink note paper and wrote something in a bad, sketchy handwriting before rolling it up and putting a small ribbon on it, making it look like some parody of a scroll. "Take this with you, and come back when there's an answer, please. And.." She nodded towards Deidara. "Take him with you. We don't need emotions here _now._"


	3. Somewhere, Nowhere

Thud.

And off went the lights.

He hadn't even time to wonder to wonder what hit him, or who did.

_'What a nice toss.'_

'It's you again...isn't it?'

_'You are really surprised to hile a little...off from the world?'_

'No...not really.' Deidara admitted, wondering why his speechpattern was gone and looking at his rugged other self. 'But what do you want now?'

_'Smalltalk.' _Inner-Deidara replied. _'You know, you were knocked out by a coconut, dumbass.'_

'Stop kidding me, no one could toss a coconut that hard.'

_'As if you know..' _Inner-Deidara snickered, before turning around. _'Well, we'll see each other, won't we?'_

Deidara wanted to stop his inner image from walking away from his mind, but he felt something rustle and slowly realized that he was waking up.

Slide...slide...slide.

A familiar sound, not welcome, but familiar.

Soft rocking, fresh air, birds chirping.

"..un." He groaned, before propping himself up and finding himself on the back of Sasori, who was now going around as Hiruko, and carrying him on his back.

"Finally." Sasori muttered, not being happy about the hitchhiker at all. "Your lights were blown off some hours ago. Not very impressing."

"What?" Deidara rubbed the back of his head. "Who struck me down, un?"  
"Sakura-tan has a very impressing aim." Sasori explained, while moving on. "No wonder Onee-san took her in."

"You say this as if it is the most normal thing in the world, un.." the blonde man coughed, not very satisfied that he met Sakura in a rather absent state. "Danna?"

"Hm?"

"Why didn't we stay, un?" Deidara hopped off his partner's back and started walking by himself. "It's not fair, is it, un?"

"_She _ordered me to leave the town at once. Put your minor human feelings aside and accept it as an order from someone who's higher in rank than you."

"Minor..human feelings, un?" He blinked. Sometimes he didn't want to know if Sasori was ever human to begin with. "Why did she send us off?"

"You're asking too much, boy." Sasori answered dryly. "She didn't tell me, she just said it's an order."

Deidara didn't say anything, although he was disappointed. Onee-san had never been sending them away without good reason, and as far as he could tell, she was by far the most friedly person to interact with – at least within Akatsuki.

"Danna" he finally said. "Where in the world are we, un?"

"I don't know." Sasori remarked.

Deidara realized that something was fishy with the whole thing, but he didn't ask any further. His mind was drifting off, and when Sasori unwillingly started to tell them what they were searching for, he didn't even listen, or feel the clothstripes on his hat flying into his face when the wind started blowing.

---

"I don't think he'll suffer permanent damage." Sakura laughed when Onee-san asked her if it was alright to send Sasori and Deidara away right after they arrived.

"I see. I know he's not that much of a boyish whimp as he likes to pretend." The older woman snickered. "I didn't have much business with him, actually. But he seems to be a nice young man, right?"

Sakura nodded. "It's surprising how many facettes a person's personality can have."

"Sadly.." Onee-san replied with a thoughtful voice. "..if it's something bad, I can never tell, can't I?"

Sakura looked at her rather surprised. "What do you mean?"  
"Oh, nothing...watch it, don't let the bottles fall to the ground. My, who knows who would be damaged more in battle, you or your enemies.." She sighed. "By the way, would you like to do some shopping? We have tons of fruit, but we'll starve if we don't get anything different into the house now."

Sakura chuckled before grabbing a bag and a purse. "I'd rather not, I always thought I have a good life here."

"I would like you to see each other more often, still I can't decide it completely." Onee-san threw teasingly after her, not getting any response from Sakura on that.

---

Deidara could almost smell that Sasori had something planned, but he couldn't point his finger on it. The guy was good with hiding his intention, and to make it more difficult, he could keep his mouth shut for longer than it was bearable.

But Deidara sure was surprised at Sasoris emotional outburst when they reached the point Onee-san had written down for them. There was nothing but field. Fiel north, east, south west. Not trees, no bushes, not even flowers.

It looked like a big, unkept lawn in the garden of a lazy, retired man.

"Oh." Sasori just said.

For a second, his partner thought about the effects it would have to congratulate him for developing back his human emotions, but he decided to shut up and just "Hmm." at him.

"So." Sasori, who was back in his original form, pulled out the note from his sleeve. "It's the point." He handed it to Deidara. "Do me a favor and go back to the town, ask her if everything is proper with the coordinates. And keep in mind I'm waiting here. No _furniture moving_ for you."

Deidara imagined how fun it would be to see Sasori implode _right now_, but forgot the thought instantly.

"Even with the bird, it'll take at least half of the time we walked, danna, un." He snarled, not liking the thought of being so long in the air, but starting to produce the base for his personal transport. If he would catch some nasty cold, he'll just submit his own funearl or something like that.

"Don't cry, it would take longer if we walk."

"Right, un.." Deidara threw his hat after Sasori. "Keep this, or it'll be blown away, un."

Sasori sighed, seeing as Deidara departed.

---

The sudden knock on the door made Onee-san jump and fall down the sofa she had comfortable settled on. Silently cursing the one who decided to disturb the peace she had finally found while her assistant was away doing groceries, she trotted up to the door, opened up with a grim expression and almost dies when Deidara's giant bird tugged him in on his sleeve, pressing itself through the far too small door and settling down in a corner of the pharmacy.

"Deidara." She growled. "First, why are you here. Second. Why do you get your pets inside my house?"

He turned around, doing wild gestures, while the bird still had his sleeve caught with it's beak. "Danna ist upset because you sent us just _somewhere_, and then there was nothing, just open field, and, and, he didn't look like it, but he was really angry and...un.."

Onee-san didn't listen at all. She was far too amazed at the young man's energy to do such a show.

"Keep cool, boy. Your nose is bleeding already." She sighed. "Come and sit down, have some cake. My word is still over Sasori's."

With a swipe of his sleeve, the blood that was dripping from his nose was gone, the bird let go of him and he could finally follow the blue-haired woman.

---

_**Notes:**_

_Yes, I suck at updating. But I have two stories to write on, and at the moment, "Six Inches" is a little more important to me.._

_I'm really, really sorry!_

_Also, I apologize for the jumps in this chapter..._

_I hope the next one will be better, and will not take as long as this one. -bows-_


End file.
